archieb

This AND a new thread too! Someone's a bit too desperate for attention I'd say!

... and now Royal Albert have relocated to Stonehouse but have been playing recent home games at Lesmahagow!

Absolutely no need to form a new WoS Senior League, just designate next season's West Junior Premiership as having the equivalent status. After all who else is it supposed to be accommodating other than OF Colts and BSC reserves? Give me a break!

Any suggestion for reorganisation of the West that does not take into account the West Juniors' impending reconstruction to 4 x 16 divisions is largely meaningless

I have no more information than anyone else on here regarding today's/tomorrow's meeting but any substantive changes have to be voted in via motions at the AGM and I'm pretty sure these need to be submitted by the end of March so the West GM on 25th January is the only existing forum before then when West Region delegates can get together to discuss what they want, whether it's changes to Cup competitions, engagement with the pyramid or anything else!

Exactly, so how can this 5th January meeting "go a long way to determining which clubs will want to take part"? That can only happen if there's a concrete proposal, circulated to ALL clubs with a potential interest, allowed time to give it proper consideration, and a forum created where all interested parties can discuss the feasibility of the proposition. This 5th Jan meeting ain't it!

Pollok did not receive the email. At least one other Super Premier club had the email sent to a retired ex-committee member, so what emailing list the sender was working from is a mystery.

But the email doesn't invite clubs to any 5th January meeting, that's between representatives of the LL and the SJFA isn't it? And some leading West Junior clubs didn't even receive the email (although they will presumably by now have become aware of it by indirect means). Furthermore, the email was only sent on the 21st December, few clubs will have had a committee meeting to even discuss the idea until this coming week at the earliest - is this going to be a re-run of the rushed "consultation" before the LL was formed?

Indeed so, allowing LL reserve and SPFL Colt sides into a WoSL would make it a far less attractive proposition for leading Junior clubs. As it is, the number of clubs in the LL with minimal away following for their FIRST teams is already offputting.

IMO there will/would be 3 things for junior clubs to be concerned about and regarding which assurances would be needed: 1. No compulsory promotion 2. Relegation would be to an appropriate league & division 3. Continued access to the Junior Cup or its successor tournament

Quote from the SJFA Management Committee minutes for November: "PYRAMID As previously reported, there had been no recent discussions on the structure below the SPFL. To date, the discussions had centred round how Junior Football might participate in the Pyramid, namely : (i) Joint East / West Superleague heading the Junior Pyramid. (ii) Existing Junior structure, i.e. East and West integrating to Pyramid. (iii) Existing East and West Juniors feeding in to Lowland League. (iv) North Pyramid, i.e. above Tay – no discussions of note to date on this point. A date for a further meeting was awaited." Haven't seen any December minutes yet ....

Whatever clubs this mythical email was sent to, Pollok wasn't one of them. A strange omission, I'd have thought?

in the months of March and April you could play 8-10 games, May, June, July and August you could play say 6 games per month, that's us up at around 32-34 game Mark, leaving 12 weeks of September, October and November to complete season. semi finals of east, west and Scottish could be played at senior grounds under floodlights in October,-one off games? finals in November again at senior grounds..maybe a bit radical but must surely be worth a try even for a few seasons given not many games in December being played. Even if this daft plan was a way to get all necessary fixtures completed I wonder what the effect would be on running costs and attendances.

What do clubs and authorities do when they hit November and there is persistent inclement weather with fixtures still to be played? And when do grass parks get repaired and re-seeded etc if they're getting played on all summer? This only works if you have 100% of clubs playing on artificial pitches (and with floodlights?)

Unrealistic pie-in-the-sky fantasy stuff. Incredible that so much time and effort is wasted by folk coming up with over-radical schemes like this.

There's absolutely nothing I can see in the SJFA Constitution & Rules that requires the General Secretary to be elected, have his position renewed or allows for him to be removed. That is totally different from the other national and regional office holders. To all intents and purposes he appears to be untouchable - from within the SJFA at least. His contract of employment may be more revealing, but there's less than zero chance of getting sight of that!

Time will tell.

Pretty much, yeah. For example. Significant increase in travel costs, and decrease in home gate money due to minimal number of traveling supporters. Risk of loss of players due to reduced budget and extra travelling.

EoSL maybe. SoSL not a chance. Pretty sure Talbot have already ruled out this option. Glasgow area clubs would laugh in your face at the very suggestion.

Nothing local about the SoSL for nearly all West Junior clubs!

Whether or not you think an all-encompassing pyramid is the correct goal to aim for, important barriers have to be broken down beforehand, and the first move needs to come from the SJFA - not its administrators, its member clubs via motions to the SJFA AGM. In this task I see 3 priorities. 1. Abolish reinstatement. 2. Replace the word 'Junior' with 'Semi-Professional' or some other more sensible term that can in time encompass all non-league clubs, or at least those above Amateur level. 3. Invite clubs in the EoSFL, SoSFL and NCL to participate in what was the Scottish Junior Cup, with the ultimate aim that this will develop into a competition for all non-League clubs (or at least those 'above' Amateur & Welfare level). That way no ex-Junior club joining the pyramid need lose out and the ex-SJC acquires more credibility ... maybe even attracts a sponsor!

Lochore is in Fife. Maybe you confused them with Lochee (Dundee)?

You are absolutely correct. Critically, what's been missing ever since the idea of the LL was first raised is a meaningful dialogue between the clubs. In the West Region, General Meetings have been tightly controlled by the management committee and, I'm led to believe, until last season essentially pointless in terms of discussion or driving forward any positive initiatives. That changed almost a year ago, when it became apparent that proposals for change were being developed independently by 4 or 5 clubs from across divisions and across the region. This led to representatives of about a dozen clubs in all, that had already expressed interest in league reconstruction, meeting together to compare ideas and take the process forward as a joint exercise. Tellingly, this was actually objected to by the West management committee, who asserted that they had instructed that only the clubs that had submitted draft proposals to them should enter into discussion and that, essentially, other clubs should not have been included! How dare they try to control who is allowed to speak to each other! On the contrary, such grass-roots inter-club contacts are desperately needed both on a regional and a national basis, to discuss all sorts of matters of concern and involving as many interested parties as is practically possible, with the intention of establishing and driving forward a common agenda. And there's no reason chat here on P&B can't be the starting point.

Harthill Royal missing?

SFA are fixed on the idea that the EoSL & SoSL are the only feeders below the LL and I can't see a proposed West Senior league formed from current West Juniors either displacing the SoSL or being fitted in alongside it. There's enough geographical overlap between East Juniors and EoSL for individual clubs to make the move either way but, as has been said numerous times it's totally impractical for a West Junior club to apply to join the SoSL, and nearly as problematic to apply for the LL. What though if most or all of next season's 16 West Premiership clubs made simultaneous coordinated applications either to the LL or to the SoSL and were accepted? Vanishingly unlikely it would ever happen of course, but .....